Saturday, October 30, 2010

A predicted rainfall shortage in some parts of North Korea, combined with reduced food aid this year, will have an "alarming" effect on the nutrition of the nation's young children and pregnant and lactating women, the U.N. Secretary-General warns.

Ban Ki-moon told U.N. member nations in a report on North Korea's human rights situation that rainfall in some areas of the country is expected to be 18 percent lower this year than in 2009, despite torrential downpours and flooding that hit the country's west on Aug. 20.

U.N. agencies providing humanitarian assistance in the country are also increasingly faced with critical funding shortages, and have managed to provide only 20 percent of the $492 million required in 2009, he said. "This has led to a downsizing of operations, with several areas and some vulnerable groups no longer receiving international assistance," Ban's report said.

Friday, October 29, 2010

North Korean and South Korean military units exchanged gunfire near their border Friday, South Korean authorities said. No casualties were reported.

The exchange happened after North Korean forces fired two rounds from a 14.5 millimeter machine gun at a South Korean military guard post near the border town of Chorwon, South Korea, about 73 miles (118 km) northeast of Seoul, according to an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The South Korean unit responded with three "warning shots" from a .50-caliber machine gun and warned the North Korean guard post by loudspeaker to desist, the official said.

While there are occasional shooting incidents across the demilitarized zones, Friday's incident occurs two weeks before the G-20 summit in Seoul.

The demilitarized zone at the location of the shooting is less than 1 mile wide (1.3 kilometers).

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Korean-American Robert Park has alleged that his North Korean interrogators tortured him.

Park reportedly admitted to committing a crime and repented. Nearly nine months after his release, and back on the Korean peninsula for a visit to Seoul, Park said the confession and contrition were extracted with force."My only regret is ... the false confession," Park told The Associated Press in an interview in Seoul. "People start to know how evil North Korea was and they know the confession was a lie. They knew the confession was false."

A pale-looking Park alleged he was beaten by the border guards who detained him, and that his North Korean interrogators tortured him. He said some of the abuse was sexual in nature but refused to elaborate. "What happened was very humiliating. There are damages that are maybe permanent," he said, calling the abuse "devastating."

"I struggled with suicide a great deal since I left North Korea," he said. "I almost committed suicide. Thankfully my family and friends helped me in America, and they placed me in a hospital."

By contrast, Aijalon Gomes, who reportedly was following Park's example when he crossed into North Korea, was treated "superbly," according to doctors who examined him in Boston after his release.

North Korea, long criticized for alleged human rights abuses, has been accused of carrying out public executions and maintaining an extensive network of political prison camps where torture is thought to be common. The regime is believed to house some 154,000 inmates in six gulags where beatings, rape and other sexual abuses are common, according to South Korean officials and experts.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Evangelical activist Robert Park, who was detained in North Korea for 43 days last year after crossing from China, has spoken for the first time on South Korean TV about the ordeal.

Park recalled how he crossed the Tumen River on December 25 last year, and was immediately arrested and beaten. "The scars and wounds of the things that happened to me in North Korea are too intense," he said.

He added that to prevent him from divulging the details of his detention, the security forces carried out humiliating sexual torture. "As a result of what happened to me in North Korea, I've thrown away any kind of personal desire. I will never, you know, be able to have a marriage or any kind of relationship."

Park insisted that an apology he read on North Korean TV was dictated to him.

He attempted a suicide immediately after he returned to the United States and had to be treated by a psychiatrist for seven months.

Asked why he decided to enter the North illegally armed with nothing but a Bible, he said, "I hoped through my sacrifice, that people will come together and they will liberate North Korea."

He pledged to devote the rest of his life to fighting for the demise of the North Korean regime and the human rights of North Koreans.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun quoted North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong Un as saying, “It was okay without food in the past as long as we had guns and bullets, but it`s not okay without food now even if we have guns and bullets.”

Kim reportedly made this comment late last month while on an inspection tour of Kimchaek, North Hamkyong Province, as the ruling Workers’ Party held a convention in Pyongyang. Documents containing what he said were distributed to senior party officials.

The newspaper also mentioned, “This is the first time for Kim Jong Un to specifically mention something about state administration,” adding, “Kim emphasized the North’s economic recovery and improvement of the people’s livelihood.”

Monday, October 25, 2010

Hanawon is a state-run settlement support center that teaches North Korean refugees how to start their new lives in South Korea. Following is an excerpt of an interview with Hanawon’s Director General, Youn Mi-ryang, on projections should North and South Korea reunite, as did East and West Germany:

Hanawon is not supposed to last forever, but as we saw in the case of Germany’s unification, it will be required to play a role for some time after unification. Even in Germany, 20 years after unification, people from the two Germanies are still psychologically different. Hanawon, I think, will have to fulfill the role of providing “integration education” for leaders from both sides of the Korean Peninsula. In particular, Hanawon will focus on being a key education organization for young North Korean leaders.

A second facility that we plan to build by 2012 will be a facility where intellectuals from the North are educated. College graduates who used to be teachers, doctors and ranking officials within the Workers’ Party are coming to the South, but the Hanawon education is insufficient for them to take advantage of their knowledge. North Korean doctors, for instance, have difficulty practicing medicine here. We are currently giving them qualifications to take the national examination to become a doctor.

There are some reasons why our current curriculum has to be "theoretical". Many defectors believe that South Korea is a U.S. colony and that the Korean War was started by South Korea. They had also been educated to idolize Kim Il Sung’s family, and we need to correct it. South Korean history and language ... these are indispensable for them to learn. Teaching those subjects only requires about 150 hours.

Out of the 420-hour Hanawon curriculum, 180 hours are reserved for activities outside of Hanawon, including a tour of Seoul. They ride the subway and visit colleges as part of job training.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

North Korean defectors appear to be traveling to Japan to earn an income in the adult entertainment industry, with a series of arrests having been made in Tokyo.

A woman who defected from North Korea to South Korea was recently deported from Japan after being convicted of illegally operating an adult salon.

The woman fled North Korea for South Korea in July 2004, but she came to Japan in April 2006 after experiencing financial difficulties in South Korea. One was quoted by the police as saying: "We defected from North Korea because our lives there were difficult, but our lives didn't improve in South Korea. In Japan, we earned a lot, partly thanks to the strong yen."

The woman first mentioned opened the adult salon in January last year, and was arrested in May this year. Nine other defectors from North Korea, all women, have also been arrested.

The women said they had sent part of the income to relatives in North Korea, according to the police.

Police believe word that good money can be made by starting an adult entertainment business in Japan has been spreading among North Korean defectors.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Three South Koreans, including a medical doctor, are being investigated after allegedly trying to defect to North Korea.

Prosecutors in Seoul have applied for arrest warrants for the three suspects who attempted to defect while on a trip to China last February, South Korea's official Yonhap news agency reported.

It is extremely unusual for South Koreans to attempt to defect to the North.

The three are said to have met through an online community forum and decided to defect after becoming "disillusioned" with life in the South, according to sources at the prosecutors' office quoted by Yonhap.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Han Jae-suk, a 31-year-old North Korean defector, has endured an odyssey in her effort to resettle in South Korea. The journey has included living for a year and a half in the basement of the South Korean Consulate in Shenyang, China, and studying 12 hours a day in Seoul as part of her training for a new career.

Han in many ways represents the North Korean defector with resolve, courage and determination. Han is a video editor with a small enterprise, who returns home after 11 p.m each night. She isn’t working late hours, but she has been taking lessons in recent months to get a driver’s license.

It will be one of a handful of certifications Han has earned since arriving in Seoul in November 2008. She has obtained licenses certifying proficiency in Microsoft Office and other computer skills, and she has learned accounting, graphic design and visual media.

“I just did my best to learn as many fields as possible, because those licenses are only a small portion of rudimentary skills that South Koreans have and I need to keep up with them to survive,” said Han.

After being discharged from Hanawon -- the state-run, mandatory resettlement center for North Korean defectors -- Han started waiting tables at a restaurant. In less than a month, she realized the job was far from what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She registered with a hagwon, a private academy, to learn graphic design because drawing had been one of her longtime hobbies. And when the 12-hour graphic design classes were finished, she headed to an accounting academy because defector friends advised her that learning the field would facilitate her job search. After six months, Han was employed as a bookkeeper at a small firm, and she worked there for three months. She then enrolled in an acedmy for a year to learn visual media. Her visual media lessons led Han to her current job editing video - an occupation she is enthusiastic about.

The single woman said leaving North Korea was one of the best choices she has made in her life. “Whatever the circumstance, I can at least enjoy basic things enjoyed by others if I try hard,” she said with a shy grin. “Up there [in North Korea], it is very hard, however hard I tried. I have kept it a rule here to work during daytime and learn at night,” she said.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Images of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il attending a military parade on October 10 showed the aftereffects of a massive stroke he suffered two years ago. He appeared weak throughout the ceremony and his face was expressionless, leading to suspicions that he may be suffering from depression, which is one of the side effects of brain damage.

A dark spot on his right cheek appears to be getting larger. It is being variously attributed to kidney problems or old age. Kim suffers from diabetes and his kidneys are believed to have been damaged as a result. If toxic compounds in the body are not released due to kidney problems, they build up underneath the skin, and if those areas are exposed to ultraviolet rays, the pigment darkens.

Kim Hyoung-kyu, a kidney expert at Korea University Medical Center, said, "He shows signs of chronic kidney failure. In that case, a person's life is in danger as more than half the kidneys lose their function even after dialysis unless the person has a transplant within five years."

Kim's stroke seems to have occurred in the right side of his brain, which affects the left side of his body. Typically, if nerve functions do not improve a year after a stroke, they remain damaged for life. His left shoulder appeared slumped as the muscles supporting it have grown weak. As a result, Kim cannot lift his left arm very high and cannot fold it inward. He can turn his head to the right, but hardly turns it to the left. This is believed to be due to rigidity in his neck muscles. He drags his left foot when walking as well.

His face appeared grim throughout the parade. His lips were stiff and his face expressionless. Brain damage due to stroke often causes depression and experts say his expression is indicative of that condition.

Monday, October 18, 2010

A group of nine Korean women is staring at a menu board at the entrance of a cafe in one of the gigantic shopping malls in central Seoul. A young woman facing the group explains different coffee drinks. “If you want coffee with nothing in it you can order an Americano. Cafe latte contains milk, and cafe mocha contains chocolate. If you want something sweet, cafe mocha is recommended,” says Lee Eun-chong, a social worker.

Says one defector, “Coffee is addictive. I am afraid once I get used to it, I will want it over and over again. It used to be a very expensive dessert in North Korea, and I couldn’t even try it back there.”

The nine women are among the 19 female North Korean defectors who arrived at Dongbu Hana Center on September 30. These women, aged 20 to 60, are on their first field trip. During the trip, they learn how to order at a cafe, shop for clothing and use public transportation from two of the center’s social workers.

“We foster [defectors’] ability to cope with the social flow. During the initial period of settling here, North Korean defectors have minimal access to news, since they have no computers or televisions,” said Kim Jae-jung, head of Dongbu Hana Center.

As of next month, the number of North Korean defectors living in South Korea will reach 20,000. These 20,000 migrants are, in essence, the very first stage of North and South Korean unification.
[JoonAng]

Sunday, October 17, 2010

North Korean refugees struggling to adapt to a bewildering new life in South Korea are increasingly getting sucked into insurance frauds as their first taste of capitalism.

Insurance scams have for years been common in the South, and in recent years fraudsters have targeted the refugees as sometimes unwitting accomplices.

"Sometimes defectors get involved because they don't know how the insurance system works. They just have no idea what they are doing is wrong," an official at the Hanawon resettlement centre told AFP.

All North Koreans who flee their impoverished communist homeland for the South must spend their first 12 weeks at the centre, which lies about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Seoul. It offers job education, information on South Korea and basic survival skills -- such as buying a subway ticket, opening a bank account and using a credit card.

From May it has also offered a new two-hour course on insurance fraud, with investigators from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) warning about the possible consequences.

Newly arrived refugees often must repay big debts to the brokers who arranged their escape via China. This makes them susceptible to taking part in frauds, which focus on bogus medical insurance claims.

In a survey conducted by legislator Kim Young-Woo, 66 percent of refugees described their living conditions as difficult. Some 56 percent said their monthly income is below 450 dollars (500,000 won) -- officially deemed to be the lowest sum on which families can manage.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Kim Jong-il is being seen more frequently in the company of his sister Kyong-hui (63) and brother-in-law Jang Song-taek (63), reinforcing that the Stalinist country's first family is pulling close.

Left: Kim Kyong-hui (circled) is seen accompanying her brother Kim Jong-il to a textile factory. Right: Her husband Jang Song-taek (circled) is seen accompanying his brother-in-law Kim Jong-il to a road construction site.

Baek Seung-joo, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, suggests, "Since he had a stroke, Kim Jong-il has appeared to believe that he can trust only his family."

Kim Jong-il apparently believes that his family will stand behind his third son succeeding to the leadership of the country. Heir apparent Kim Jong-un, who is in his late-20s, is considered too young to take power and thus his succession could lead to a power struggle.

The speculation is that Kim Jong-il is appearing more in public with his sister and her husband to prevent possible controversy over the authenticity of his wishes if he dies suddenly. A source said, "There would be no controversy over the authenticity of his last wishes if two members of his family claim they have heard them."

Friday, October 15, 2010

A new Web site that appears to be one of the first to operate from inside North Korea remained unblocked by South Korean government censors. The Web site carries news in English and Spanish from the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).

Like much of what happens in North Korea, official details of the network are lacking, but the emergence of the site comes shortly after North Korea stepped up its propaganda efforts on social media. Uriminzokkiri, a Web site that carries Korean-language despatches from KCNA and domestic newspapers, recently launched feeds on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Last weekend, when North Korea invited foreign journalists to cover the celebrations marking the 65th anniversary of the Korea Workers Party, it surprised correspondents with full Internet access in a press room. Trips to Pyongyang by outsiders are typically marked by a lack of Internet.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

South Korea held a funeral Thursday for high-profile North Korean defector Hwang Jang-yop, who once tutored autocratic leader Kim Jong Il, with officials praising his efforts to resolve rights abuses in his communist homeland.

Hwang Jang-yop, a key architect of North Korea's state policy of isolationism and self-reliance, was found dead Sunday at his Seoul home at the age of 87. Hwang was one of North Korea's most powerful officials when he shocked the world by defecting to South Korea in 1997 via China and the Philippines.

After arriving in South Korea, Hwang wrote books and delivered speeches condemning Kim's regime as authoritarian. He lived under tight police security amid fears of assassination attempts by North Korean agents.

An initial examination of Hwang's body showed no signs of foul play, though final autopsy results have yet to be released.Earlier this year, two North Korean army majors were sentenced to 10 years in prison in South Korea for planning to assassinate him. North Korea has denied the plot.

Earlier this week, Hwang was posthumously decorated with a top government medal for his efforts to bring democracy to the North and disclose the reality of life in the authoritarian country.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Whether based on fact or propaganda, The Telegraph reports aides loyal to the North Korea's heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, planned to attack his exiled elder brother last year in retaliation for his off-message comments about the need for reform in the Stalinist dictatorship.

Apparantly the plot had been firmly scotched by China.The paper added that Jong-nam has close ties with China's network of "princelings", the coterie of sons and daughters of senior Chinese officials who have powerful business interests and family political connections in China.

Kim Jong-nam (left) and Kim Jong-un

Jong-nam, a portly father-of-two who lives in self-imposed exile in Beijing and Macau, has lead a fairly "ordinary" life with his wife and two children, flitting between the gambling hub of Macau and Beijing, living on a reported £500,000-a-year allowance.

Jong-nam has periodically given interviews to the Japanese and South Korean media, often speaking with a frankness and informality that is not in step with secretive regime.

Last weekend in an interview with Japan's Asahi Television, Jong-Nam made critical comments, saying that he was "opposed" to the idea of hereditary succession in his homeland and hinting at the need for economic reforms to raise living standards in the bankrupt state where millions live below the breadline.

Jong-nam also sayid he will continue to stay abroad, indicating there is no room for him to play in North Korea's current power structure.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

With roughly 80 foreign media members covering the recent historic events in North Korea - and North Korea’s own state media, in an unusual move, broadcasting live footage of the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party - the temporary opening has provided a rare look into the reclusive state and the new power elite within the secretive government.

Close scrutiny of the order within North Korea’s Workers’ Party indicates that Kim Jong-un, son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, is currently sixth in rank in the power structure.

Kim Jong-un has been featured in North Korea’s official media eight times since his first appearance in the news at the end of last month, when he received a four-star general title along with several others, a day before a major Workers’ Party convention.

Experts said during recent reshuffles that Kim Jong-il was moving quickly to place familiar, trusted faces in the government’s top spots to make sure his son is ensured a secure position as leader.

Among the recent changes in North Korea’s government and military, one thing has not changed: the power and position of Jang Song-thaek, Jong-un’s uncle and Kim Jong-il’s “No. 2 man,” as he is often referred to.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Kim Jong Un (left) with his father Kim Jong Il (3rd R) of DPRK, and Zhou Yongkang (2nd R), a member of the Communist Party of China, watching a grand evening gala held to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea, Oct. 10, 2010.

North Korean leader-in-waiting Kim Jong Un appeared Sunday with his father at a mass-scale military parade, also attended by a senior Chinese official, Zhou Yongkang, observing the 65th birthday of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

The show of military might started at 10 a.m. local time Sunday with a salvo of 21 guns, after a flag-raising ceremony and a performance by the military band. In front of over 100,000 spectators, 34 phalanxes of cadets and soldiers from different military and paramilitary services and institutions marched in gallant goose-steps, with their heads turned toward Kim on his tribune of honor. Following them were tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery rockets and missiles, including several types of surface-to-surface missiles that had never been publicly displayed before.

The sight of the two Kims side by side above a huge portrait of Kim Il Sung, and later waving to the crowd, drew cheers of "Hurrah!" and some tears from North Koreans attending the parade in the heart of the capital, Pyongyang. "He's the one, exactly the same as Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il," gushed Kim Soh Ye, a young woman in a Korean gown who was escorting foreign journalists for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

To let the world see the heir apparent dubbed the Young General, the regime allowed international journalists to capture the spectacle after more than two years of virtually closing its borders to foreign media. Select media outlets were given front-row seats.

"Kim Jong Il needed to show that the succession is going well, that there is unity of purpose between the party and the military," said Moon Chung-in, a political-science professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. "If there was internal turmoil, he could not come up with this kind of show."

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranking North Korean ever to defect to South Korea, was found dead in Seoul, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Sunday, referring to local police.

A security guard found Hwang dead in the bathroom of his home in Seoul on Sunday morning. Police believe that Hwang, 87, a former senior member of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party who defected to South Korea more than ten years ago, apparently died of a heart attack, the agency said.

There were no signs of a break-in at his house where he stayed with a security guard, the agency said.

However, AFP news agency reported that South Korean intelligence officials were also investigating the possibility that Hwang, a bitter critic of the regime he once served, might have been killed as he had been threatened with death over his criticism of the reclusive Communist regime.

Hwang was the architect of North Korea's "juche" ideology of self-reliance and was one of the country's most powerful officials before he defected in 1997.

Saturday, October 09, 2010

In the group photograph taken September 30, international attention was focused on Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and heir apparent. But another individual in that photograph, sitting five places to the right of Jong Il, may warrant even more attention than Jong Un.

The woman is Kim Kyong Hui, 64, Jong Il's younger sister and the "godmother of the royal family." Kyong Hui also marked her debut on the political stage at the meeting. After being named general, she was appointed to the party Politburo.

Kim Kyong Hui has been described as cantankerous, obstinate and a drunk. North Korean insiders say Kyong Hui has a violent temperament and never changes her mind once she has made a decision.

Kyong Hui is a regular member of the alcohol drinking parties hosted by Jong Il and attended by high-ranking party officials. According to sources, she cannot stop drinking once she starts. She has been known to drunkenly bellow: "Hey, Jang Song Thaek, drink up!"

She is said to be the only person who can give advice to Jong Il. And he apparently can do little to control his younger sister. Hwang Jang Yop, a former party secretary who defected to South Korea in 1997, wrote in a book that Kyong Hui once told him, "Although he is surrounded by many flatterers, my older brother [Kim Jong Il] is actually very lonely."

Kyong Hui is also well known for being a "shadow power broker." Japanese companies seeking to move into North Korea sought out personal connections that would eventually lead to her.

She met her husband, Jang Song Thaek, who came from an ordinary family outside of Pyongyang, when they were students at Kim Il Sung University. Jang heads the party's Administration Department, which gives him control over public security and the "thought police." In June, he was promoted to vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, the highest decision-making organ in North Korea.

Ha Tae-keung, who heads Open Radio for North Korea based in Seoul, said: "Kim Jong Il is probably very worried about the fate of his dynasty should anything happen to him under the present circumstances. He probably wanted to give his younger sister greater authority now, so that when the time comes, she can serve in the roles of 'executor of the will' and 'manager of the dynasty.'"

Yang Hyong-sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, which is the North Korean Parliament, told the news agency:

“Our people take pride in the fact that they are blessed with great leaders from generation to generation. Our people are honored to serve the great President Kim Il-sung and the great leader Kim Jong-il…. Now we also have the honor of serving young Gen. Kim Jong-un.”

His reported use of the present tense — that the people of North Korea are already “serving” Kim Jong-un — might not, in fact, mean that the leader’s son already holds power. For North Korea’s reclusive regime, it seems, there is no important distinction made between the past, the present and the future when it comes to the Kims.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

North Korea has increased public executions, apparently in a bid to tighten controls amid the designation of North Korean leader's son Kim Jong-un as his father's heir. According to data released on Tuesday by Grand National Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun, the regime publicly executed at least 22 people in the first half of this year.

According to the data, the regime executed 10 people, including two women, on charges of robbery, rape and prostitution, all together in Pyongyang in December 2009. It also publicly executed the platoon leader of the border garrison on charges of narcotics smuggling and human trafficking the same month.

A noncom officer of the border garrison was executed in January for having aided and abetted the defection of a family and two Chinese Koreans for having leaked confidential information in February.

The figures are far larger than those in previous reports published by Amnesty International, where it said the North publicly executed at least 23 people between 1970 and 1992 and "at least seven" in 2009.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

They wear the unofficial uniform of a billion other young people: jeans, T-shirts and sneakers. But until recently, these Seoul students had never heard rap music, eaten a burger or watched David Beckham dribble a ball.

Born in the Rip Van Winkle state of North Korea, where Western clothes and culture are restricted or banned, they are now struggling to adapt to life in the noisy, capitalist South says Cho Myung-sook, the vice-president of one of the few schools in the South for Northern defectors.

"They often have a hard time here. They have to be taught to begin again from scratch. Many people don't understand that they are so pure," says Ms Cho. "They have so much sympathy for people who are weaker or in trouble. They often end up in jobs helping others."

Their plight is one of the lesser-known modern tragedies, says Rev Tim Peters, the founder of the Seoul-based humanitarian group Helping Hands Korea. Many have been refugees for months or years. They have no rights. Some have been caught and sent back to prison only to escape again.

Peters says that North Korean agents in the border areas around China co-operate with Chinese security forces to hunt for defectors. Some disguise themselves as refugees or work undercover as employers. If caught and repatriated, North Koreans face prison or worse. Amnesty International says some have been tortured and executed.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Top-level North Korean defector Hwang Jang Yop says Pyongyang will never abandon its nuclear development program, but neither will the belligerent dictatorship of Kim Jong Il launch a nuclear attack.

Hwang Jang Yop, who served as secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and was an aide to Kim, said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, "Pyongyang is often threatening (other countries), saying that it will soon start a war. But it will not use nuclear weapons."

Observers of North Korea say the purpose of the nuclear program is mainly to strengthen Kim's grip on power. The defector said the North Korean regime is in no danger of collapsing for the time being because Kim has consolidated his power by promoting only those who show unconditional loyalty to him.

"The degree of dictatorship has become 10 times stronger than that in the era of his father, Kim Il Sung," Hwang said.

Presumed economic experts are Hong Sok-hyong (74), the director of the Planning and Finance Department, and Tae Jong-su (74), the director of the General Affairs Department.

Kim Yang-gon (68) was put in charge of dealing with South Korea and Kang Sok-ju (71) with the U.S. Lt. Gen. Kim Yong-chol, the director of the Reconnaissance Bureau, will likely continue to be in charge of military operations against the South.

U Dong-chuk (68), the first deputy director of the State Security Department, the North's intelligence agency, was appointed to the Central Military Commission and as an alternate member of the Politburo. Ju Sang-song (77), who heads the Ministry of Public Security, the North's police, was appointed as a full member of the Politburo.

They will come under the direct supervision of Jang Song-taek (64), the director of the Administration Department who is Kim Jong-un's uncle. A North Korean source speculated, "Jang, U and Ju will serve as a troika of aides to guard Kim Jong-un's regime."

Kim Kyong-hui (64), Kim Jong-un's aunt, became a full member of the Politburo.

The most prominent military officer is vice marshal Ri Yong-ho (68). Many senior members of the Army general staff, including Choe Bu-il, its deputy chief, were promoted or appointed to major posts in the Central Military Commission.

Choe Ryong-hae (60) was appointed to three senior positions at the same time -- an alternate member of the Politburo, party secretary and member of the Central Military Commission.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

North Korea is such a thoroughly insane regime, its horrors so vast and its system so bizarre that it borders on the incomprehensible. So the news of the promotion of Kim Jong-il's third son, Kim Jong-un – to vice-chairman of the Workers Party of Korea's Central Military Commission, a four-star generalship and membership in the party's Central Committee, all in the same week – is, in a sense, reassuring.

The problems of succession are at least problems we can recognize. It's a narrative that can be understood. To a strangely precise degree, the succession of Kim Jong-un follows the pattern of Prince Hal in the Henry IV plays.

One of the major themes of the homilies was how, no matter how unjust the leadership of the sovereign, no man could stretch a hand “against the Lord's Anointed,” a phrase that might have been culled from North Korean propaganda.

The greatest character in these plays is Prince Hal, later Henry V, whose succession consumes the bulk of the action in Henry IV, Parts One and Two. Prince Hal employs a succession strategy that was entirely Shakespeare's invention. Like Hal, Kim Jong-un is a perfect blank. Nobody even knows how old he is. Also like Hal, he represents exactly the opposite of what one might expect of a next “Dear Leader.” We know so little about him that every scrap of knowledge rings with significance. We know that he is young. We know that he was educated outside North Korea, in Bern, Switzerland. And we know that the state is promoting his computer knowledge, sometimes addressing him as CNC, or Computer Numerical Control.

All three descriptions represent the antithesis of the North Korean system. Kim Jong-un, the pre-Leader – young, educated abroad and computer-savvy – represents exactly the forces that he will repress as Leader.

Friday, October 01, 2010

Bloggers from South Korea's Internet community had one overriding question about the youngest son of leader Kim Jong-il: how did he get so fat when his country is starving?

Internet posts were pointed. "Pyongyang's fat pig," wrote one user, a comment which could earn a death sentence north of the border.

Kim Jong-un (left), the youngest son of Kim Jong-il (right), poses with newly elected members of the central leadership body of the Workers' Party of Korea REUTERS

"North Korean residents are all starving to death, but what did they eat to get so fat like that?" wrote another, referring to the Kim dynasty, which has ruled the impoverished nation since its founding in 1948.

"Wow, they are huge! They should let one more fat son in and form a North Korean version of teletubbies," read another.

"What you (Jong-un) eat daily could save hundreds of your people," wrote one user.

The front-page lead of conservative newspaper Chosun Ilbo was equally scornful. Its headline read: "The only fat Prince of Pyongyang".

Founding father Kim Il-sung was portly in later life. His son and current leader Kim Jong-il sported a prominent pot belly until he lost weight dramatically following a stroke in 2008.

Kim Jong-un's half-brother Kim Jong-nam appears overweight in photos taken during his pampered life in Macau.

Kim Jong-un "takes after his grandfather Kim Il-sung but he is short and stout like his father", Yang Moo-jin, of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.

Meanwhile, one out of three young children in North Korea is stunted by malnutrition, the United Nations children's fund has said.